photographing race cars

[july_hymn]

Hello there,

My boyfriend has spent the better part of this year building a hobby stock race car, and is hoping to squeeze in a few races before the end of the season. He asked me if I would take some photos of the car in action on the track when the time comes.

Does anyone here have tips or experience with this?? I am still a super-newbie. I will have a couple opportunities to take photos - some during hot laps and elimination heats in high to medium sunlight and some in the feature races under stadium lights.

Please post any tips you have, along with any example shots if you have some. Thanks in advance for any help!!

[Charlie Self]

If you're using a P&S camera, you're going to have problems catching action shots because of the long shutter lag.

Learn to pan, matching car speed with your camera movement, and hold as steady as possible on a vertical plane. Keep all camera movement on a horizontal plane. This is much easier with an optical viewfinder and the camera held to your face, IMO.

Learn where the cars seem to lose momentum and try to catch them there with a steady camera.

Learn to anticipate your shutter lag timing so that as the car enters your frame, you already have the shutter half pressed.

If you can get your hands on a DSLR, you'll get far better results, but it can be done with a P&S, or so I'm told.

For sample shots, you can check my website, www.charliesonline.com.

Enjoy the racing.

[july_hymn]

should have been more specific. I will be shooting with my Nikon D40 and its kit lens (18-55mm).

Charlie, I couldn't get to your pics using the link in your reply.

[Scatterbrain]

I don't know about race cars, but recently took some photographs at a power boat race. See here for the thread I posted about it in SYS.

I chose to pan along with the racing boats to take a 'static' shot of the boats as they whizzed past. I found shutter priority and a fast shutter speed best for this. My only problem was with some of the styles of boats they generated little or no movement in the water & so ended up looking as if they were parked in the middle of the river. I'm thinking of returning to the races soon and panning again with a slower shutter speed to see if I can get a movement blur in the background next time. They were going so fast i'm not sure if i'll achieve this, though.

Why not experiment before you go by taking pics of cars driving along a road. This should help you to identify the mostappropriate setting & style for moving vehicles before you go.

Good Luck.

Scatterbrain

[july_hymn]

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

Why not experiment before you go by taking pics of cars driving along a road.

Good idea!! (don't know why I didn't think of it first haha...)

Love the boat pic BTW. Did you use the "burst" mode at all when you were shooting?

[JodyGall]

I take pictures at the track all the time. Always for fun though. That's my practice time for learning to shoot in Manual! LOL! Will you be shooting a circle track or a drag strip? I've only done drag strips....but here's some pics from our race in July. I have a D40 also and used my kits lens for these shots! I'm constantly changing my settings trying to get them just right, but I'll try to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability! And I'm pretty sure everything in these posts is straight out of the camera. I'll have to go back and look to see if I did any editing (usually you can tell by the picture name if I did something to it....it has a 'a' or a 'b' behind it). Feel free to check out my two blog entries from our race in July:

http://jody749.vox.com/library/post/7-2-08.html
http://jody749.vox.com/library/post/7-3-08-1.html

[july_hymn]

Jody,

Nice pics - i like the one with all the smoke on the tires! He'll be racing on a circle track (dirt) - though I wish it were a drag strip (much more interesting for me!) I am mostly worried about lighting conditions as the sun goes down and the stadium lights come on.

[JodyGall]

I would think that once the sun goes down, you're going to need a tripod. I took some pictures as the sun was setting, but it only worked for just a little bit. Then I put the camera away for the night. I can't quite manage a tripod, camera and a toddler up in the stands at the race track! Haha! If I ever get the chance to go to a race with my daughter, I will definitely give the night time pics a try!

[rmorris]

Hi there,

I am new to the forum and also to shooting dirt track racing. I just started this year and have learned a lot and have a ways to go.

One of the biggest problems I have encountered is, unless you’re the track photographer or work for the track photographer, your shot locations may be limited to less than prime angles. I tend to shoot at the top of turn 1 and in the pits between turn 1 and 2, now with that said, on the top of turn 1, there is a concrete wall immediately to my left so at 90-100 mph into turn 1 you cannot see the car until it is right in front of you cranking into turn 1, and in the pits, there is a 20' break in the guardrail next to the flagman so you have a split second to get that shot, so it is always a challenge to get your best shot.

Panning always makes for a nice picture if you have the ability to shoot without distractions.

The equipment I use is a Canon 40D, Canon f/2.8 70-200L IS USM (with the IS I don’t have to use a tripod) and a Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash. There are other flashes out there that will give you more light for night time action racing, it boils down to what you want to achieve and how much do you spend. I personally like the Speedlite which you can tweak if need be. You will find that going from Sunlight, to Dusk, to Night time, brings a whole new set of challenges to your shooting. The level of flash at dusk will not be the same level before dusk and when the sun finally sets, you also need to be weary of your WB as that also will change.

If you can find a good location to shoot from, make sure that you take some practice shots before the action starts and adjust your camera. Here is what works for me when determining when to take the shot and where to focus:

I have found that, as far as capturing the car pretty much in the center of your picture, you focus (looking from the pits) on the front left tire, if you take the shot then, the car will 9 times out of 10 be where you want it in the photo.

I am not sure if you have access to photographing Quarter Midgets, this is a great start to getting your technique down, but if you do remember to drink some Monster Energy drinks when you start the big track, it's what you learned X 100 as far as speed (or at least it will seem that way).

Hope this helps and didn’t bore anyone.




Evening Partly Cloudy

Exposure Time = 1/1600
F-Stop = ƒ/3.2
Exposure Program = manual control
ISO Speed Ratings = 800
Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length = 78 mm




Night Shot

Exposure Time = 1/250 second
F-Stop = ƒ/4.5
Exposure Program = manual control
ISO Speed Ratings = 500
Flash = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length = 73 mm